Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-31

claratlon before any court Of record hav
ing clerk and seal and common law
Jurisdiction. This would permit declar-
atoms to be flied and the oath made be-
fore the clerk of the District or County
court
The Assistant Attorney General speaks
of "state elections" which is useless to
discuss. What is meant by estate cleo
tions" refers not to change in the Or
ganic laws of the state, but to the cleo
ton OF state officers. Who may and who
may not vote on amendments to the con-
stitution is clearly lsid down in the con-
stitution itself, as will be be seen by ref
erence to article II, entitled "Mode of
amending the constitution of this state"
which reads as follows: "The Legisla-
ture at sny biennisl session, by vote of
two-thirds Of all the members elected to
each house $ may propose amend
ments to the constitution to be voted
upon by The qualified electors for nlemberS
Of the Legislature, which proposed amend
ments," etc. This is the organic law of
the land speaking, and If any act of the
Legislature or any officer OF the state
government says differently 1t can in no
way affect or lessen the tantamount po-
tentality of the original compact. These
amendments have been regularly sub
mltted to the people, and the question
arises first, "Who shall vote on them2"
The constitution, which is higher than
legislative enectments or lawyers, be-
cause it IS the supreme will of the peo-
pie, answers plainly and unequivocally:
"The qud}ifcd electors for members of the
legislature" That is the fundamental
law beyond all quibbling or cavil. Any
body can read 1t and everybody csn IN
derstand 1t VINO is possessed Of ordinary
intelligence. There is one other question
and only one, and thst Is: "Who
are the qualified electors for men,
bers of the Legislature?" This
question is not defined in the
constitution, and therefore we must take
the next best authority, which is found
in the legislative enactments. We do
not go to the lawyers because the represen-
tatives of the people have defined clearly
and answered fully this question as will
be found In article 1858 which reads:
Every male person who is subject to nei-
Their of the disqualihcations named in the
preceding article That is, who is not an
idiot, lunatic, pauper, convicted of felony,
q sailor, soldier or seaman, who shall
have attained the age of twenty one
years, and who shall be citizen of the
United States, and who shall have re-
sided in the state one year next preced-
ing the election, and the last six months
within the district or county in which
he offers to vote, shall be deemed quail
fed voter" This is the language of the
law and it is, next to the constitution, the
highest authority known in the state. If
there had been no legislative enactment
defining "qualiaed elector," then we
would have recourse to the lawyer who
could tell US what was customary and
common, and what his text books had to
say about it. The law says quite plainly
that when q constitutional amendment is
submitted to the people for ratification or
rejection "the qualified electors for mem
bers of the Legislature" alone are enti-
tied to vote, and further, that in order to
become qualified elector, q residence
of one year in the state and six months in
the county is necessary.
In regard to foreign born male persons
the same rule applies. Any foreign born
male person not disqualified otherwise,
who shall declare his intentions of be-
coming citizen in the regular way, and
who shall have resided in the state twelve
months and in the county six months
next preceding the election, shall be en-
titled to vote. It is mistake to sup
pose that foreigner can arrive here and
declare his intentions to-day and vote
tomorrow; and it is equally q mistake
to suppose that foreign born male per-
son must reside in Texas twelve months
after declaring his intention of becoming
a citizen before being allowed to vote
The date of his residence begins when he
gets foot on Texas soil; his declaration
of intentions can be made in sny cour
Of record any time before the election.